Furnace-door opener and closer.



PATENTED JUNE 9, 1908.

L. ANDREWS. FURNACE DOOR OPENER. A-ND CLOSER.

ARPLIGATION FILED MR. 1, 1907.

V/IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LEWIS ANDREWS, OF APOPKA, FLORIDA.

FURNACE-DOOR OPENER AND CLOSER.

No. ceases.

Specification of Letters I atent.

Patented June 9, 1908.

Application filed March 1, 1907. Serial No. 360,089.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Lnwrs ANDREWS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Apopka, 1n the county of Orange and State of Florida, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnace-Door Openers and Closers,- and I do declare the following to he a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to means for opening and automatically closing boiler furnace doors during the firing operation.

It has for its object to provide a construction which will be composed of the smallest number of parts for eflicient operation and so located as to be most convenient for manipulation and to afford the best leverage for operating the parts, and by means of which the door will be automatically closed and held closed without the necessity of a latch, and at the same time providing for the location of the closing spring so that it will not be affected by the heat from the furnace and enabling it to be of such length, strength and elasticity that it will aflord the least opposition to the leverage for opening the door and yet cause a prompt closing of the door without slamming or jarring of the parts.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and such other objects as may hereinafter appear the invention consists in the features of construction hereinafter particularly described and then sought to be clearly defined by the claims reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof and in which Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, showing the device applied to a locomotive furnace door; and Fig. 2 is a plan view.

In the drawing, the numeral 1 designates a boiler furnace, which may be stationary but for illustration represents a locomotive boiler furnace, and which is provided with a furnace door 2 which will open to the left i11- stead of to the right for the locating of the operating parts so that they will be most convenient for the firemen and be out of the way of the engineer in the en ine/cab. The numeral 3 designates a rotata ble shaft j ournaled in suitable boXings 4 secured to the underside of the cab floor 5 and having arms 6 and 7 at its op osite ends, the shaft extending parallel with the side of the cab and it together with the arm 7 lying parallel with the cab-floor, while the arm 6 will project up through a slot 8 in the cab floor and stand at an angle of about forty-five degrees in the direction of the furnace door. The arm 7 may be made integral with the shaft, while it is preferred to make the arm 6 separate therefrom and to secure it thereto by a set screw 9, or otherwise, so that a coiled sprin 10 may be easily slipped onto the shaft, before the arm 6 is applied. One end of this spring will be secured to the shaft and the other end to, say, the journal boX for the end of the shaft carrying the arm 6. The shaft 3 may in practice be about three feet in length, depending however on the size of the engine, so that the end carrying the arm 7 will be at or adjacent to the cab apron or tender so that the fireman can easily operate it from the position in which he stands while feeding fuel from the tender to the furnace. By lacing the spring around this shaft it can be made of a length that will put the least strain on the spring while at the same time afiording a support for the spring and offering less resistance to the operating lever in opening the door and yet enabling the spring to promptly close the door without slamming; and it also removes the spring from the heat radiated frofn the furnace.

The arm 6 is formed with a fork 11 whose end receives a bolt 12 to hold a link 13 which works in an eye 14 formed in one end of a link-arm 15 which has an eye 16 at its other end in which fits a ring 17 attached by a plate 18 to the furnace door 2. The arm 7 is formed with an eye 19 which fits and is loosely held within the fork 20 of a foot lever 21 bya bolt 22. This lever passes up through the cab floor and is formed with a foot rest 23 so that when the fireman presses down on the lever the shaft 3 is rotated so as to swing the arm 6 and through its connection'with the door throw or pull it open, and when pressure on the foot lever is relieved the spring coiled around the shaft will recoil and turn the shaft in the other direction to close the door. The foot lever is formed with a notch 24 designed to engage with a plate 25 on the cab floor when depressed and brought into engagement with the plate, so as to hold the door open if that be desired. Ordinarily, that will not be done because the fireman will keep the lever in removing his foot the spring will rotate the shaft and close the door.

Having described my invention and set forth its merits, what I claim is The combination with a furnace door hinged to swing to the left of the furnace in opening, of a horizontally disposed shaft extendingparallel with the furnace and located "to the left of the furnace door, an arm con nected to the end of the shaft next to the fur nace and inclined upwardly towards the door, a link loosely connected at one end with said arm and at the other end loosely connected with the door, a spring encircling the depressed by his foot and l horizontally disposed shaft and adapted to be placed under tension in rotating the shaft to open the door and in itsrecoil to rotate said shaft to close the door, and a foot lever connected with the end of the horizontally disposed. shaft farthest removed from the door for swinging the door to the left and placing said spring under tension, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

LEWIS ANDREWS.

l/Vitnesses J. D. MITGHILL, H. H. WITHERINGTON. 

